254 Harvard Psychologist Tal Ben-Shahar's Guide to Being Happy with an Imperfect Life
Release Date: 07/17/2025
267 Eric Nehrlich on How to Shape the Next Chapter of Your Career (When You're Already Successful)
Behind the Brilliance
In this expansive conversation, Lisa talks with executive coach and author Eric Nehrlich. His career path reads like a masterclass in strategic pivoting: physics PhD dropout turned software engineer, product manager, Google finance analyst, and eventually Chief of Staff in Google’s C suite before launching his own executive coaching practice. But his journey reveals something more profound than professional flexibility. It's a story about unlearning the toxic relationship between achievement and suffering, understanding when "working harder" becomes counterproductive, and discovering...
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266 How to Get the Best Sleep of Your Life, According to Science
Behind the Brilliance
Board-certified sleep specialist returns to Behind the Brilliance for a wide-ranging and deeply practical masterclass on the three biological essentials that keep most people from thriving: sleep, hydration, and breathing. He reveals how to improve sleep, energy, and long-term health and goes beyond basic wellness advice to help us understand the foundational mechanics that determine energy, health, and well-being. From jet lag strategies to weighted blankets to getting back to sleep in the middle of the night, Dr. Breus delivers practical solutions that work in the real world because...
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265 Kate O'Neill on Navigating the Future of Technology Without Losing Our Humanity
Behind the Brilliance
SUMMARY Kate O'Neill is a strategist, futurist, and author who helps leaders navigate the intersection of technology and humanity. After building her career in Silicon Valley—including as one of Netflix's early employees—Kate has become one of the most thoughtful voices on how we can harness technological advancement to improve life and work without losing our humanity in the process. In this conversation, we connect key ideas between technology’s impact on the future of work, individual lives and careers, and innovation efforts inside companies. Kate shares her journey from linguistics...
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264 Tina Lifford on Achieving Inner Fitness in a Shifting World
Behind the Brilliance
SUMMARY Actress, author, and Inner Fitness Project founder Tina Lifford returns to Behind the Brilliance for a follow up years after her crowd-pleasing interview in episode 115. Fresh off the release of her new book The Inner Fitness Revolution, Tina brings decades of wisdom about building sustainable creative careers and developing the inner work that makes external success fulfilling. This conversation goes deep on the frameworks Tina has developed through her own spiritual journey from understanding the "three selves" (surviving, thriving, infinite) to making self-empowering choices in any...
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263 Jordan Grumet on Having More Than Enough
Behind the Brilliance
SUMMARY Physician and author joins Lisa for a wide-ranging, deeply reflective conversation about what happens when the life you worked toward no longer defines who you are. Jordan shares his personal journey through medicine, financial independence, and hospice care, including the unexpected panic that followed reaching financial freedom earlier than anticipated. What was supposed to be a moment of celebration was a terrifying realization: without work, his identity collapsed. Drawing from his work with the dying and his own experience of burnout, he explains why money and achievement...
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262 Beyond Goals and Resolutions: 6 Strategies for a Better Year
Behind the Brilliance
In this special year-end episode of Behind the Brilliance, Lisa presents six evidence-based strategies for designing a year that feels good while you're living it. Moving beyond traditional goal-setting advice, this episode explores the psychological architecture behind sustainable achievement: why updating your self-concept matters more than willpower, how to engineer habits that survive bad days, and why strategic incompetence is a sophisticated choice rather than a failure. Lisa shares a liberating perspective on deciding what deserves optimization versus maintenance and makes the case for...
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261 The Best of Season 15
Behind the Brilliance
Season 15 of Behind the Brilliance delivered a mix of leading voices in psychology, entrepreneurship, and life design. This special recap distills the most powerful insights into one place highlighting big ideas and useful tools on happiness, resilience, and building a life and business on your own terms. Guests include Tal Ben-Shahar, Ellen Hendriksen, Jodi Wellman, Rand Fishkin, Chris Guillebeau, Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Elaine Pofeldt, Rae Wynn-Grant, Ahad Khan, and Sieva Kozinsky. The episode also includes a listening guide to match your interest with the relevant episode. The recap...
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260 Chris Guillebeau on Escaping Time Anxiety and Building a Self-Directed Life
Behind the Brilliance
, bestselling author and creator of The Art of Nonconformity, joins Lisa to explore what it really takes to build a self-directed life. He shares his unconventional path from high school dropout and aid worker in West Africa to global traveler, author of nine books, and entrepreneur. Chris unpacks the philosophy behind his work—why you don’t have to live your life the way others expect—and introduces the concept of time anxiety, the tension between the fear of running out of time and the paralysis of endless choices. The conversation covers everything from the psychology of...
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259 Sieva Kozinsky on The Path from early failures to Enduring Ventures: lessons on fear, focus, and the long game
Behind the Brilliance
THE SHOW In this episode of Behind the Brilliance, entrepreneur and investor Sieva Kozinsky joins the show to share his journey from first-generation immigrant beginnings to co-founding Enduring Ventures, a holding company that acquires and grows businesses for the long game. Sieva opens up about the fear that fueled his early ventures, the lessons learned from failed startups and pivots, and why fundraising can sometimes blind founders to what really matters. We dive deep into the psychology of selling a company, the art of negotiation with founders, and how legacy is built (or...
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258 Rand Fishkin on Escaping Status Anxiety, Rebuilding Identity, and Building a Business That Doesn’t Break You
Behind the Brilliance
THE SHOW What happens when you build the company of your dreams, only to realize the dream came with tradeoffs you didn’t see coming? In this candid conversation, Rand Fishkin — cofounder of Moz and SparkToro — shares the pivotal moments that shaped his career: turning a $39 side experiment into a multimillion-dollar SaaS, raising venture capital for the wrong reasons, walking away from a $40M acquisition offer, and rebuilding his identity after leaving the company he founded. Along the way, Rand unpacks the philosophy he lives by now: designing work around the life you want, not the...
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Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, Harvard-trained psychologist and author of multiple bestsellers including Happier, joins Lisa to explore the psychology and habits that lead to happiness in modern times. He uncovers the myths that keep successful people miserable and why our pursuit of the next achievement isn’t the answer. He shares his personal journey from academic achievement to profound unhappiness, breaks down the difference between experiencing emotions and being consumed by them, and offers a counterintuitive approach to emotional health through passive observation. The conversation covers everything from the achievement trap and social media's impact on happiness to practical parenting strategies and the future of leadership in a post-pandemic world.
Behind his brilliance: Curiosity and passionate effort
Visit BehindtheBrilliance.com for the show notes
TOPICS COVERED
Why successful people often feel secretly empty
The myth of constant happiness and toxic positivity culture
Passive observation: witnessing emotions without being consumed by them
The psychology of "enough" and escaping achievement addiction
Why fighting your feelings makes them persist
The role of curiosity in emotional wellbeing and personal growth
Social media's impact on perfectionism and life satisfaction
How to create space between stimulus and response during overwhelming moments
The difference between hard work and effort in personal development
Turning emotional dissatisfaction into positive life changes
Modern loneliness epidemic and the paradox of digital connection
Building authentic relationships based on values rather than demographics
The symbiotic relationship between leadership and management
Why power and control are ineffective leadership tools
Parenting strategies for raising emotionally intelligent children
The importance of modeling emotional regulation for kids
How to develop discipline without relying on motivation or willpower
Why retirement isn't the answer to work dissatisfaction
The value of experimentation and changing periods to question marks in life